Sun in Taurus

A Monarch Butterfly

(photo credit: Tony Hisgett, September 2011)

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There’s something nice about the idea that those in power (whoever they were) decided to schedule Earth Day for an early Taurean degree. The event falls on April 22nd and the sign which goes with it is all about both the qualities of being ‘secure’ or ‘secured’ on this planet ... and whatever gives us that sort of personal security.

So Taurus isn’t ‘about’ money. Or luxury goods. Or even food. It’s about the sense of security those things give us. Our world has taught us that if we have money we have a better ability to guarantee our survival, but the money itself is not Taurean. What money gives us is the security to think in broader terms, which is why one enterprising U.S. ex-governor (whose name I don’t recall, please forgive me...) spoke of his time trying to live on welfare’s stipend for a couple of weeks as an exercise which taught him that the essential and inescapable trial of hunger and poverty is not about whether someone is lazy or a go-getter, but how knowing we have so little stops us from thinking in terms of what we can do, instead forcing us to consider what we can’t do if we hope to see another day.

That sort of insecurity is the instinct which underlies Taurus. In Taurus we learn to take care of our Self so we can develop, so we can learn to master our body, our mind, our feelings and through all those lessons, our life.

And anything that threatens that? Or which could possibly change that when we haven’t (Gemini) thought about it and ultimately (Leo) chosen it?

That which threatens to change our life without our agreeing to it stands in opposition to our ability to feel intrinsically (individually) secure about ‘owning’ (being in control of) our own life.

In other words, it stands in opposition to the basic Taurus premise. And that sign ... that influence is Scorpio.

In Taurus, we own our Self. All things Taurus are about that Self, the owning of that Self, the having confidence in that Self and recognizing that Self as our primary and most important resource ... which is why we work to determine what our abilities are and aren’t (Taurus people are famous for standing their ground and defending the value of said position in all cases and either direction!) ... from which comes our sense of valuing of those abilities (and therefore our Self for having developed them).

Against all of this is that very peculiar Taurean instinct - an instinct which, in zodiacal terms, is purely instinct since Taurus precedes Gemini, the sign of our development of conscious and useful mentality.

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From that - from that ‘pre-mentality’ Taurean state we face others, instinctively self-defensive (at least Aries precedes Taurus!)... and that’s why Taurus-Scorpio is the polarity wherein we face our fears.

Fear is instinctive. In Scorpio - an interactive sign - others test our security ... our Taurean Self ... all along the emotional border where that Self chooses to interact - and thus risk something (even if it’s just a moment of your time) with, or in the presence of others. And how well we deal with that ability to risk our feelings ... well, while the experience of the risk (being interactive) may be Scorpio, the security of the Self, any part of which might just possibly be at risk in that Scorpio situation, that part of the saga is entirely Taurus.

It’s that part of us which values us and works to keep us safe. Or which doesn’t keep us safe. Or which simply won’t risk.

Or which dares not feel what it means to fear because the loss of false security is such a fearful thing.

War - any war against others or some situation is Scorpionic, whether we're at war with(within) our Self and prone to inflicting the byproduct of that nastiness on others, whether we're in a direct contest with others, whether we're at war with some control or restriction or whether that war is against some civil entity or faction of civilization against some other faction of civilization.

And yet peace also requires a fight. That's the nature of fixed signs - to struggle to create and to struggle to contain, which here pits 'my (Taurus) reality' against what (Scorpio) makes that reality feel safe or not.

That's the fight - our fight to get us past our own instinctive Taurus fears to where we can (Gemini) understand the world and our options and choose based on our own cooler (Gemini) ability to think and be rational. In other words, if we haven't resolved our 'fear of our own fears' on an individual basis, we aren't likely to have sufficient peace all the way around.

And yet, it's so much easier to (Scorpio) vent than (Taurus) take our Self on.

Sunset on Australia's Middle Park Beach

(photographer unknown)

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You know, by moving from the second stage in the zodiacal process - the Taurean stage - into Gemini, where with our fears in check we learn to gather information, sort through our priorities and choose, plan and set about our daily (or lifelong) business.

In the case of the current ingress, the Sun is entering Taurus at 9:43 in the morning of April 20th (UT/+0 time) in trine to Pallas (still in station mode) and square an Aquarian Ceres, speaking to not just to our relationship with society or ‘social/societal forces,’ but to something which focuses on (or simply focuses) our perspective on all such matters - that being the Pallas part of things. Pallas detaches us from things so we can 'see' what they are more clearly, whether that takes accepting something else or isolating (or becoming isolated) from some group, idea, lifestyle, system or information/comprehension, and given Pallas' April 19th turn to retrograde, we are all in the process of either internalizing something or seeing something about (or possibly in) our Self.

And that process ... or just the facts we come up with ... those things are helping us gain (Pallas) perspective on our instincts. Or maybe our various forms of ‘immaturity’ (physical or emotional) in play ... or where we are quite possibly the ‘immature’ player, whether that means we (or something) is as yet not ready for something, whether someone is simply being childish or whether the reference here is to something or someone who is just ‘young,’ whether in age or their own perspective - as one might be for reasons of lack of education, lack of mental health, or any other reason which might mark someone as not capable of (or willing to) interact on a level of equivalency or as an equal.

With Venus (the ruler of Taurus) transiting Gemini as the Sun enters Taurus, this year’s ‘Taurus Experience’ is likely to start out as a slight ‘rounding’ or ‘gentling’ of thoughts (and the feelings promoted by those thoughts) initiated through general conversation and our everyday perceptions. Most of us are a little tired of - and ready to ‘give up’ or ‘get away from’ something we’ve already met up with which we’d like to respond to (or manage) with some level of panache (and if not panache, at least competency!) ... and there’s something weighing on us which we either don’t yet know how to get done, or which we don’t want to do incorrectly and which we want to get organized before embarking upon.

Maybe even before we mention it.

Moreover, not everyone which is going on is likely to be pleasant or friendly-feeling all the way along the line. As of yesterday’s New Moon (that being the New Moon at 28 Aries - see previous post) Mercury - which is also in Taurus - came into orb of conjunction to Mars. Mars being already about half way through Taurus is representing all those things which we want ... which as Mars reaches the Taurean cross-quarters point (15 Taurus) is life pushing us to move from a ‘learning’ mode into an ‘application’ mode.

Mercury-Mars in a Taurus conjunction can represent determination. Then again, it can also represent frustration - even hostility towards self, others or (as we would suspect), some level of fear driven by a sense of lack or incapacity, perhaps. So while we may be wanting to be the person who determines something, this conjunction (which perfects at 15 Taurus on April 22nd, and which ends on April 25th) is also an opportunity to ‘try’ something or when you ‘determine’ what you want to do. Perhaps you’ll embody this by becoming determined to master some task, whether you’re trying to understand, work with or accept and interact some notion, value or fact.

Or maybe you’ll just be not wanting to admit to anything, right or wrong. Or you're just not in any mood to be challenged.

Any Mercury-Mars conjunction is going to provoke feelings of some sort. It's as if all we can (Mercury) think about is what we absolutely want ... or really truly don't like (a lot).

And that stirs many a feeling - and often some sort of instinctive (read: not necessarily well thought out) assertive (Mars-type) reaction.

 A rural road in northern Switzerland

(Benjamin Gimmel, April 2004)

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We are in other words, simply prone during this period to getting ourselves bogged down (or allowing ourselves to be stuck) in simply not wanting to change because we don’t want to.

And yes, this could be exactly the sort of immaturity being challenged - or which we are finding so very (very) challenging in others. This ‘planted in one spot’ quality is something all the earth signs adopt as a methodology at least some of the time, with the Taurus attempt to ‘own’ that which it opposes without having to actually ‘touch it’ generally taking manifesting as various attempts to control or manipulate without actually getting involved.

In other words, Taurus is the sign under which we often attempt to interaction with others without having anything apply to us ... which sounds like a way to protect one’s (Taurean) resources, but which inevitably leads to starving your Self of input and everything which could in the long run provide the tools and keys to inner security.  

People talk about Taurean negativity as ‘stubbornness’ often without any conception of how limiting the choice to be stubborn for the sake of being stubborn is ... and how the refusal to consider anything else is not about strength, but about a fear of our own vulnerabilities. And sure, we’d all rather have someone else carry our emotional baggage, but when we do that, we poison our own chances for the kind of long-lasting strength of security which can only be achieved through self-knowledge and self-confrontation.

Moreover, life truly wants to give us what we ask for. So when we fear others doing something to us - that’s what metaphysics says will happen ... which is something worth thinking about. This doesn’t mean we should think only happy, candy-coated thoughts as that doesn’t apply - not to mention how such sugar-coating is hardly honest, and avoidance of honesty is a sure sign of those underlying lacks of self worth which are so negative Taurus.

 Buffalo grazing on the Wyoming grasslands

(photo credit:Ron Nichols, United States Department of Agriculture) 

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In short, if you don’t want a war - with others or with yourself, deal with the fear within. The fear we don’t deal with we project - which does nothing other than offer opportunities to those who will fill in that gap and give us something to fear in reality.

It’s harder ... but ultimately probably a lot more productive to face our fears on our own. Once we do that, then we can live in the security of our own core providing validity and security to everyone else ... which in any mode and by any means is one of the better definitions of human success.
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Mercury enters Taurus

In keeping with the Sabian Symbol for 0 Taurus, "A CLEAR MOUNTAIN STREAM"

(phase 31), a photo of a tumbling Alpine stream in Mollis, Switzerland.

(photo credit Glarnerwolf, October 2014)

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For all those whose brain circuitry is feeling all jumpy or overloaded even with Venus now in Gemini, calming influences are theoretically on the way in the form of Mercury entering Taurus at 22:53 (10:53 p.m.) UT/+0 time on Tuesday, April 14th.

And yes, this may mean you go directly from jumpy to all stodgy or stuck-on-a-stick-(ish), but at least with Mercury’s entrance into Taurus many a thing (human and otherwise) which has come to have a ‘mind of its own’ to the extent that the possible good is being offset by too much consciousness of Self ...or, particularly in the case of inanimate or insentient situations or objects, where there simply isn’t enough ‘integration’ to keep continuation of whatever is going on from creating problems for others/other parts of some ‘food chain.' (Which, in some cases could refer to actual - Taurus - food and/or issues connected to food, eating and the entire spectrum of 'nourishment' as a concept or practice.)

Being our solar systemic indicator of mentality and mental pacing, tone and potential, Mercury’s entering Taurus will reflect in something of a shift in thinking habits. Gone will be the drive and edge so common under Mercury in Aries - and gone too will be the tendency to think primarily (if not only) in terms of our Self, a habit which can be plenty disruptive under Mercury in Aries even if it also is a sign of standing up for one’s self or taking some stand.

Moreover, we’re not all that ‘done’ with learning a few new things. The first three signs of the zodiac (Aries, Taurus, Gemini) are all about learning who we are - and a lot of that learning gets done through other people (i.e., through influences described by the three signs in oppositional polarity to those first three signs).

In Taurus, Mercury seeks ways for things to be secure and secured. Optimally, this combination of sign and planetary symbol speaks to our confidence, our ability to cope when challenged by anything.

But therein lies the rub, if you get my drift. The oppositional sign to Taurus being Scorpio, all things Taurean become or tend to be tested by episodes of push-pull or through ‘discussions’ which we either have with our Self about that Self (and what they are or aren’t doing) ... or ‘discussions’ with-or-about others, with all of this basically being about what ‘worth’ means, and what in life really deserves our time, effort, loyalty, resources, sacrifices or anything other part of our life.

In short, why should we care? Or ... should we care?

Under Taurus we may feel guilty for being selfish or unequal to a looming challenge. We may take to thinking of ourselves as having done all we need to do, or we may recognize that we could do something if we would just prepare ourselves for the task (and eventual triumph!) through committing to some sort of Self-development.

And given the nature of Mercury, variations on these themes are what we are going to think about, talk about and experience from April 14th until Mercury moves on into Gemini come May 1st.

During that transit, Mercury will go retrograde. The dates are from May 19th through June 11th, and that Mercury is going to go retrograde under Gemini means that apart from things which are happening at that time (and which are totally unique to the moment) ... that makes Mercury’s transit of Taurus a period when what we are doing may well in some way end up connecting or contributing to whatever we are focused on (or possibly hung up by) during Mercury’s retrograde period.

Does that mean we will be so focused ...or so determined to finish something (come what may) that we end up making some miscalculation or omission which ends up forcing us to double back as is so common under Mercury retrograde? Might it mean we’re trying to hit/adhere to some deadline because once Mercury enters Gemini (or goes retrograde) we will have missed some known opportunity?

There’s another way to see the whole of this Mercury in Aries, Taurus and Gemini process which also may well apply here, particularly if you’re looking longer term (months or years, as opposed to days or weeks). Considering all else (the recent eclipses and such) and being how all three cited signs are zodiacal first quadrant signs (pertaining to learning about our Self, our abilities or things we need to know in order to effectively live our life), everything we do from now until Mercury enters Cancer (and the zodiac’s 2nd quadrant) is on some level part of an overarching ‘project’ - the inborn ‘project’ we have to tackle simply because we are what and who we are as living beings on this planet in this time.

It sounds so serious. And survival is serious - hence Taurus’ relationship to security and all the ‘necessaries’ which allow us to proceed along our way through life, the most popular of which seem to be personal security (physical and emotional), food, shelter and money ... the basic stuff of life.

If this is you, if you are in the middle of a personal learning ‘project’ (or if you’re needing to tackle one), Mercury being anywhere in the first quadrant supports your investigations - and at the moment, though there is some fixed sign tendency with Mercury to stick on some point just because admitting you’ve been wrong triggers an inner/instinctive sense of vulnerability connected to “not knowing” how to take care of your Self, those who can get past the sticking to the digging into the process of doing, doing better or learning how or why your efforts aren’t effective ... they will all stand to learn a lot and even make themselves feel a whole lot better (about something) through the process of making that effort.

Mercury in Taurus (glyph chart)

April 14, 2015 - 22:53 (10:53 p.m.) UT/+0 - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

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Mercury in Taurus (text chart)

April 14, 2015 - 22:53 (10:53 p.m.) UT/+0 - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

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Of course for some this is a particularly prickly emotional time. That is to be expected in the wake of an eclipse which hit fixed star Scheat - which among other things stands for our ability to wall things out, and our willingness to project the responsibility for feelings and reactions onto others without realizing that if its your reaction its your problem.

And how where and when left unattended, how such denied (Piscean) feelings, no matter how we dress them up or what we call them, are in the long run damaging to everyone, including us and including those many others we would like to think we are ‘sparing’ the sort of grief we are hoping we can avoid through sheer denial.

It’s pretty futile, but people do this sort of thing anyway. We humans are always trying to tell ourselves that if we don’t (Mercury) acknowledge or think about it we won’t have to confront our (Pisces) feelings on the subject and risk facing our own (Taurus) sense of insecurity - that being our true ‘the enemy within.’

Our sense of security - in the end - has nothing to do with anyone else. It’s only and always about us. They’re our emotions, and therefore ours to feel and ours to own and take responsibility for. Furthermore, history and reality teaches us exactly the opposite of that fervent wish occurs when we (Pisces/Scheat) avoid truths as energy is never lost.

So all that energy that we don’t want to deal with - whether for reasons of eclipse denial which we’re now struggling with or because we just don’t WANT to (that stubborn fixed sign thing) ... it has to go somewhere, this being a real challenge posed by the fixed sign energetic. Fixed signs energies are easily applied to resistance or stonewalling - and that’s something we all should think about (and work through) while tackling those challenges which tend to arise when the Sun is in a fixed sign - which it will be once the Sun enters Taurus on April 20th.

We also encounter such energies when we deal with people born under fixed signs, too. (Know anyone who seems born to resist changes to the status quo?)

Fixing things in place (or affixing them in place) is a typical fixed sign tactic ... and also the primary challenge placed before any of the zodiac’s fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius). But just as cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn) need to learn to look before they leap ... and just as mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces) need to learn that never making up one’s mind or committing to a particular choice goes nowhere, fixed signs need to learn that to work at controlling things is not the object.

Learning to control our most immature and insecure Self ... that’s what frees us to think, plan and choose effectively, which apart from all else would be something we may well need to do (or consider) as a factor as Pluto (you remember Pluto, right? Dwarf planet? Obsessive reputation?)... as Pluto heads into its station and turns to retrograde at the end of this coming week (on the 17th), closing out the first of thirty-six months of Pisces/Scheat solar eclipse doings.

But first we have to get past whatever our personal issues with personal security really are - which generally has a whole lot to do with where we come from in life and things we experienced early on, all of which would be perfect to spend at least a bit of time musing through during these next few weeks.

NGC 7320 in constellation Pegasus, the constellation which

fixed star Scheat is part of.

(photo credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble-SM4-ERO Team, July 2009)

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Being that Mercury is coming into Taurus in a trine to Pallas at 0 Capricorn (Pallas entered Capricorn last week) we know there are issues (or yes, perhaps people) which matter ("structural," some would call them) and which (this being the 0 Capricorn part) we not only get much from thinking about, but which we 'connected to' and recognize that connecting on a level which is hard to define if vital to where we currently are in our belief in our Self ... and which we know we need to do more about ... or maybe with.

Pallas being an energetic which creates moments and views (or a 'vision') only attainable through cool-minded perspectives, this is likely to be an important - or at least lingering note being struck, if for no other reason than Pallas' impending turn to retrograde (as if you wanted to hear about another station?) at 0 Capricorn come April 19th.

Right now we are getting a perspective of life as offered by life and life circumstances. Once Pallas goes retrograde, perspective will turn on us - we'll see why we are or aren't what we thought or think we are.

But that's then, and this is now. And since Mercury’s transits through Taurus have long been spoken of as a time to develop or show what we’re capable of - most of all to our Self so that we can be confident and productive, not to mention secure in being our Self enough that we are even able to be there for, and interact with others - this is a useful time to think through all such possibilities as we work through our days and life's challenges. Given that we seldom attribute major life events to any of the so-called 'personal planets' (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars) when they're in transit, as with Venus' shift into Gemini a couple of days ago (see previous post) Mercury moving from one sign to another describes background perspectives and modes, just as Venus' placement by sign describes some of the general 'mood' we experience while pursuing our day-in, day-out daily doings.

And so we're clear here, all of this differs entirely (like, totally) from when our personal and natal Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus or Mars GETS transited by objects from Jupiter on outward into the cosmos.

Those periods (which when we talk about objects like Neptune can take a couple of years) ARE a big deal.

But as for now ...? Qualities we'd associate with Mercury and Taurus - the exploring of how to make what we have go farther and what's worth expending time, energy, attention or priorities on - with this combination of planet and sign, we expect to hear debates and conversations of many kinds, some of which we end up holding with ourselves (in our mind or otherwise) and some of which we experience as an interaction with others, all of it at base - no matter the surface text - being about the worth of things and how values and whether we care or don't care about this, that or them - whether any of it merits your time and loving attention.

And if so, which thing(s) matter - and why?

And all of this makes perfect sense if, when and where we think of Taurus as the sign before Gemini, Gemini being the zodiacal district of information gathering, choice and planning.

After all, before we choose, shouldn’t we get clear - at least to our own secure satisfaction - as to what matters so that based on that we will have the choice to choose intelligently or well?

One would think yes.
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